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Your Gaming White Whale

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Ultima 6 and ultima7 parts 1 and 2 ... I always just dick around forever and forget about the main quest.
same with morrowind. I still load these up from time to time with about the same results. Funny when you still avoid spoilers for games you've had for 10 years.

Also I've never beaten the single player in starcraft without "power overwhelming" I still try from time to to time but usually loose my resolve around the 3rd zerg mission. Alas, I've always liked starcraft but never been any good at it. Thankfully sc2 has an "easy enough for your dumb ass" mode.

Something like 5 missions in a row, of steadily increasing difficulty.

I must have reached the first mission a year and a half ago. I hit an ungodly wall that I ust couldn't surmount.

About 2 months ago I persevered, gradually brute forcing my way through the first level and the level after.

And then I hit the 3 stage. The stage where you have to defeat the Dragon King.

Apparently my entire party must be underleveled, or I brought the wrong guys into this endgame, because as far as I can tell there is absolutely no way I can beat the guy. It is a mathematical impossibility.

Beat super mario bros 3 for the first time without cheats a couple months ago. Beat Hook on NES a little before that. I tried to beat Willow on NES but couldn't push myself to farm levels on the game, lost interest.

Probably my biggest whale. I consider all the games I beat to be satisfying though, and the ones I don't beat to be unfinished projects. I wish there were more hours in the day, or that I had less responsibility... Whichever works.

... They ate, slept and worked. Some of them found uninteresting partners at work who they married and came home to. Sometimes they would half-heartededly thrust into each other and children were made. They lived a middle class existence until their deaths to heart disease and cancer.

GTA IV for me. I've played, 100%'d and adored all the others. I went to the midnight release for IV, I waited in line and took a few days off work to immerse myself in the game. I banged my head against the wall of the bank robbery mission, 4 Leaf Clover. I can do the shootout bits, but each time I made it to the vehicle I could never ditch the wanted level. Closest I ever got was I evaded the cops and got my stars blinking as they were about to disappear but I was stuck in a shitty smoking car because I had to keep moving to keep the heat off me and I wound up hitting a fire hydrant and exploding my vehicle. Now this was after taking a two month break because of the same frustration. I haven't touched the game since, been close to a year now.

This is late, but there's a bit of a cheat for the end of that mission. When you're climbing out of the subway tunnel, your wanted level drops from 5 stars to 3 stars before you come out in the open. When your wanted level drops, you can just turn around and go back down into the subway and run until you're out of the wanted area. No one will bother you; you just have to run a couple miles in the tunnel toward freedom.

I finished all the Tribunal and Bloodmoon quests, completed all the faction/side quests, explored every cave/mine/grotto/shipwreck, ransacked every house/shop, been declared Neravine, and sent to smack down Dagoth Ur. Then I downloaded a bunch of mods and wanted to start over.

I pretty much repeat this cycle every few years. I realize I've never actually finished the main story and decide to start over. I load up all the new mods, get near the end and want to start over...again.

At this point I think my experience will be ruined if I ever do finish the main quest.

Whew! Just beat one of mine today - the Difficult version of Mega Man 2 on the NES.

I've been trying (and failing) to beat that game since I watched my brother play it when I was in preschool. I just beat the normal version a few months ago, and thought it was pretty hard. Now I finally did it for real.

The only bad thing is that it makes me realize how much easier MM2 is than my other NES white whales (Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden) - your attacks are much less versatile, health is much harder to come by, and in the case of Castlevania, your controls are much worse.

Omg, I completely blocked that from memory it was so horrible, just about made me cry. Now I'm wracking my brain trying to think where I was stuck.

I always got stuck on the stupid gems in the floor puzzle on the second level. Or was it the third level?

The thing that made that game especially painful for me is that I was obsessed with wizards when I was a kid. So of course, I played it all the fucking time so I could be a wizard. And always got to the same part... and always got my ass stuck. So I'd quit playing for about two days, then doggedly try again. And get stuck... again.

The only bad thing is that it makes me realize how much easier MM2 is than my other NES white whales (Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden) - your attacks are much less versatile, health is much harder to come by, and in the case of Castlevania, your controls are much worse.

Still, I never thought I'd actually beat this game, so...

Castlevania..... Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! Frankenstein with Igor was always so difficultly random. Some days I would own him off the bat, and others I just couldn't get passed.

I don't know how many times my NES froze up as I was about to deal a death blow to Dracula.....then he turned into the other creature and I silently lost my innocent youth. Eventually I killed him with the aid of some outside cooling on my NES so it wouldn't lock up on me. Yes Castlevania was the first time I rigged an outside fan to a system for extra cooling.

In the year 2010, Garret Dorigan (An assumed name.) finally found his nemesis... and slayed it.

Anybody remember this game? It was a short Metroid style game that was based off of a poorly dubbed anime, and fun fact, was the inspiration behind the SMS Light Phazor. I played this game when I was seven, and I could never finish it. I always ended up with JJ and Apple dead with an un-upgraded Champ stuck. Then, my Master System exploded.

It was actually this thread that got me to think about this again. I looked it up on Wikipedia and, lo and behold, there was a link to play it online as a Java app. I finally made it through it yesterday in a marathon play session of three hours... because I couldn't remember the map.

Has anybody ever met anyone who finished "Legacy of the Wizard" on the NES. That game haunted me as a kid, I could never get to any boss, I could never get items that had no conceivable value. I could wander for hours and never find where I was supposed to go though.

I finished all the Tribunal and Bloodmoon quests, completed all the faction/side quests, explored every cave/mine/grotto/shipwreck, ransacked every house/shop, been declared Neravine, and sent to smack down Dagoth Ur. Then I downloaded a bunch of mods and wanted to start over.

I pretty much repeat this cycle every few years. I realize I've never actually finished the main story and decide to start over. I load up all the new mods, get near the end and want to start over...again.

At this point I think my experience will be ruined if I ever do finish the main quest.

I sort of do the same thing with Oblivion. I basically just start it and don't bother looking for Martin because I don't want Oblivion gates ruining my landscape. I think I got to Sky Cloud Moon temple or whatever it is, but then it was back to harassing guards and pilfering anything that wasn't nailed down (but taking over someone's house is much more fun in Morrowind).

I've sort of given up on Breath of Fire 3. I've gotten to the end where you're supposed to ride an escalator to heaven and then fight through a factory, but it's so god-awfully boring that I've never beat it. Everything once you get on the ship just gets worse and worse. So the save has been sitting on my memory card for about 10 years.

If there were some way to stop the random encounters maybe I'd beat it, but at this point it's just "Ryu, you should probably marry Nina and tell that 'goddess' holed up in the tower to screw off." Then 1/4 of wikipedia's plot synopsis details what happens on the station anyway, so I don't think I'm missing out (although it appears to have a Jade Empire-style end game option).

Same thing sort of happened with FFT, but more of a "I leveled up to beat this story mission and now these red Chocobos kick my ass"...except I could probably easily beat them now. I'm tempted to restart that occasionally and then decide against it.

I guess currently my white whale would be Dragon Age. I'm not endlessly failing at that game, but I just feel like I suck horribly at it. Even when I'm micromanaging every single one of my party members.

However, my ultimate Captain Ahab moment would have to be Donkey Kong 64. King K. Rool will never die for me.

Seriously some parts of it I had no clue what the hell I was meant to be doing

Lucasarts adventure games had that problem occasionally. Sometimes the puzzles leave you sitting there going "wait...what!?" Those games definitely forced you to think in ways that defy rational standard logic.

Oh man, the puzzles comment just reminded me of the 7th guest. Played the hell out of it with a buddy, but the puzzles... God, the puzzles.

How do you fit 8 queens on a chess board, none of them in another's attack lines when you're 12 years old. How!?!

At least that one had a pattern and logic to follow.
What about those terrible cans?!

Seriously some parts of it I had no clue what the hell I was meant to be doing

Lucasarts adventure games had that problem occasionally. Sometimes the puzzles leave you sitting there going "wait...what!?" Those games definitely forced you to think in ways that defy rational standard logic.

Oh man, the puzzles comment just reminded me of the 7th guest. Played the hell out of it with a buddy, but the puzzles... God, the puzzles.

How do you fit 8 queens on a chess board, none of them in another's attack lines when you're 12 years old. How!?!

At least that one had a pattern and logic to follow.
What about those terrible cans?!

In the pantry? I don't remember if I cheated or what, but I don't remember having too hard a time with it.

I still haven't beat Final Fantasy X. I get to the point where you're fighting whatever the hell the guy with girl hair's name is, and he's got this like robot body, and then I throw the controller down in frustration. I tried to do it for a couple years, and then I just never went back to it. The entire game was like nails on a chalkboard up to that point, so I can't imagine it gets any better. I haven't touched the Final Fantasy franchise since then.

I still haven't beat Final Fantasy X. I get to the point where you're fighting whatever the hell the guy with girl hair's name is, and he's got this like robot body, and then I throw the controller down in frustration. I tried to do it for a couple years, and then I just never went back to it. The entire game was like nails on a chalkboard up to that point, so I can't imagine it gets any better. I haven't touched the Final Fantasy franchise since then.

Hah! You think (BIG SPOILZ, LOL)

Spoiler:

Seymour was bad, it just gets like ten fucking times worse once you fight Yunalesca, who's more than capable of killing you in a single turn.

I quit after I got stuck on Jecht. Stupid regenerating asshat.

Actually, the entire Final Fantasy series is my humongous white whale. I have, to my eternal shame, never beaten a single one. I get up to the last couple of boss fights, get my ass whooped, and then leave them alone.

I still haven't beat Final Fantasy X. I get to the point where you're fighting whatever the hell the guy with girl hair's name is, and he's got this like robot body, and then I throw the controller down in frustration. I tried to do it for a couple years, and then I just never went back to it. The entire game was like nails on a chalkboard up to that point, so I can't imagine it gets any better. I haven't touched the Final Fantasy franchise since then.

Hah! You think (BIG SPOILZ, LOL)

Spoiler:

Seymour was bad, it just gets like ten fucking times worse once you fight Yunalesca, who's more than capable of killing you in a single turn.

I quit after I got stuck on Jecht. Stupid regenerating asshat.

Actually, the entire Final Fantasy series is my humongous white whale. I have, to my eternal shame, never beaten a single one. I get up to the last couple of boss fights, get my ass whooped, and then leave them alone.

Guitar Hero 2, expert, Hangar 18. Played that shit all day every day whatever summer it came out, finally got to Fucking Hangar 18. Could never finish the final solo. I always failed around 67%, so the ONE time I got past that it was that OHMYGODOHMYGODI'MGOINGOTMAKEITI'MGOINGTOMAKEITFAILAT97%NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I cannot seem to find/build a local community that is inclusive to the Wii.

I've tried with my bro, but he's only interested in 360 stuff. Even with games both systems share like the Guitar Hero games and Geometry Wars, and I actually have multiplayer capability for them (e.g. 2 guitars), he doesn't want to.

I've tried among my friends, and with a certain group in particular where one of the friends whom I've known since forever has access to multiple Wii through their family (parents have one, sibilings have their own, etc.) But again, other than a round of bowling on Wii Sports and some Guitar Hero, they don't seem to be interested. Even when Wii Sports Resort came out, I offered to bring the game to their place to try out, but we never did put it on.

Also, in the case of this friend's sibling, they mentioned that while they liked the games that were out, they wished they could play the "original Mario games that were all "doo doot doo" with the music (not actual quote, but general idea)", meaning Super Mario Bros. 1-3. At that point, I told them about the Virtual Console (which they did not know of at the time) and how to set it up, and their face lit up and jaws hit the floor and their minds were probably "OH SHIT YES!". ........but it took them forever to set it up. This was around Christmas tme of some year IIRC, and I kept asking if they set up their Wii as I secretly hoped I could gift them the games. It took MONTHS for them to finally get it going.

Another similar situation was with another Wii owning friend: I got their 16 digit Wii code number after adding my number to their Wii so we could send messages and stuff (and also to secret gift VC games just like before). When I was able to send a message to them, they freaked out over the blue "You've got mail!" light thinking there was something wrong with their Wii. They had NEVER seen the blue light like that before.

Even when I was in university, it was more of the same. Every now and then, a bunch of people would gather in a room with whatever they felt like bringing. All consoles and handhelds were there, but most of the time it was PS2 and PS3 there. There's been some variety there, be it RPG's like a Tales game or FFXIII, or fighting games like BlazBlue and Arcana Heart. But of those that brought Wii, it was Brawl. On rare occasions when more people came and brought their Wii, there was New Super Mario Bros and even Castlevania Judgement. But on the one that was ALWAYS Brawl, the only times it was ever something else being played was while that guy waited for more people to come to have multiplayer matches of Brawl. Truth be told, probably at least 90% of all Wii I ever saw in use had either Brawl or Melee in them.
So whenever I brought my Wii, I tried to add more variety like there was on the other systems. On separate occasions, I've brought Mario Kart Wii, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Wii Sports Resort, and even Pac-man Vs.. Each and every single time, I've been met with "So how do you play this?"....YES! EVEN WITH MARIO KART WII! And when I tried to mix it up a little with some of the older stuff like Street Fighter II Turbo and Bomberman 93, no one cared. No one.

The latest of my attempts was at a local event I volunteered at and I brought my Wii with me as well as Mario Kart Wii and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom among other games. If there was ANYWHERE a random bunch of people would be willing to try out some games for fun, it was this event. Among all of the games there that I could see, there was Super Street Fighter IV, BlazBlue, Brawl, some DDR, and even Mario Kart 64. I tried to pay real close attention to what games were being played around me. When I noticed a lot of people playing Mario Kart 64, I put on Mario Kart Wii, and likewise with Tatsunoko vs. Capcom when I noticed a lot of people were playing the various fighting games. Keep up with what the crowd demands and all that jazz. ...but hardly anyone wanted to play what I offered, and once again I had people asking "how do you play this?" with Mario Kart Wii. I can understand the people that were there flocking to Mario Kart 64 for the same nostalgic reasons I would flock to Super Mario Kart if I were in their shoes. What I can't understand are these same people later going over to Mario Kart Wii and saying "How do I play this?" as if it was so different from any other Mario Kart. (To be fair, I only had Wheels and Classic Controllers as available controls at this event, but I never had anyone ask if they could use a Nunchuk or Gamecube controller either, so I doubt it was purely an issue of controller preference.)

As for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, it only got tried once by a couple of people, and only after they saw it had the PTX from Lost Planet and Frank West from Dead Rising in the game. They glossed over the roster and went "Eh......"

But there was one other part that also happened at this event that pretty much broke my proverbial camel's back, and it happened as I was switching games.
Random person: "What's that? (pointing to the screen)"
Me: "That's the Wii's main menu."
Random person: "Oh really? I've never seen that before."
Me:

I wanted to take the experience I would gain from that event and use it to see if I could make a Mario Kart Tournament/Food Drive happen at my church, but I got NOTHING out of it other than people who don't know how to play it. I really didn't think something like that would happen with the third best-selling game on the console. So I don't know WTF I can do with regard to this now.

So, yeah, I have a console that excels in local multiplayer, but live in a community that doesn't give a shit about local multiplayer unless it's Brawl or something that's not played on a Wii. I'm not saying anything about Brawl one way or another, but what I am saying is that there is much more to the Wii than any one game -- including Brawl, and I just find it sad and frustrating that no matter what I try to do, no one wants to giving anything on Wii a decent shot.

It's not that it's hard in terms of difficulty, it's just that it takes so much damage and effort to kill shit it gets old and boring fast. That combined with the fact that the dark will is not very interesting visually makes it something I don't really want to play again.

Maybe it's your age? And I don't mean that in a derogratory sense, I mean maybe the people you hang out with are at that age where they just don't play many new video games. You mention being at a university, so I imagine around 20 years old?

I could count on one hand the number of times me and my friends have played video games together in the last 5 years for me, ANY game. Not just wii games. I think it has to do with having less time to learn new games and sticking mainly to what you know. In the case of your friends, they have 360's and ps3s, so they know those games, but they don't have enough time to learn every game, you know?

Actually, the entire Final Fantasy series is my humongous white whale. I have, to my eternal shame, never beaten a single one. I get up to the last couple of boss fights, get my ass whooped, and then leave them alone.

This has happened, to date, TWELVE TIMES.

Grrrrr.

Oh man, that reminds me of my own great failures: I have the worst habit of getting to the midpoint/end of a game and then getting my attention hooked on something else and never going back. Out of the FF games alone, I've done so with 2, 5, 6, 7, 12, Legends 2 and Adventure, and I'm pretty sure 90% of the rest of my catalogue counts for this as well: Twilight Princess, Killer7, Bully, Ys 6, Metroid Prime 2, No More Heroes, Resident Evil 0, Henry Hatsworth...

While technically I've beaten this game several times, to this day I remain unable to beat the Animal buddy bonus level in the lost world of Donkey Kong Country 2. I can beat the rhino, swordfish and spider section. But once I hit Squawks I'm doomed. Usually I end up grabbing the DK coin and moving on.